Insights

5 Great Apps for Business Owners

Do you run an online store or an e-commerce website? Are you looking for innovative ways to help manage your time, money, and assets while on the go? If so, these apps are for you!

There are plenty of apps on the mobile market today that claim to help small business owners like yourself. With so many options, however, it can be a little daunting trying to choose the right ones for the job. Read on to discover 5 great apps for small business owners, and choose those that are best for you and your store.

Fuze

If you have more employees, vendors, or members of your organisation than just you alone, then chances are good that you need some way to contact several of them at one time while on the go. Fuze is an excellent option for managing videoconferencing from a mobile device. It is available for iPhone, iPad, and Samsung Galaxy, and it is quickly becoming a very popular video call app.

Fuze provides high-quality audio and video without the problems of blurry pictures or broken up sound. The highest level of paid Fuze can host up to 25 people per voice call or 12 people per video call and allows for screen sharing. For three months, you can try a free trial version of Fuze that provides limited services, such as a 3-person voice or video chat option and the screen sharing component.

Clear

If time management and organisational skills are not your strong point (or if you are the type of person who loves to make lists every day), then Clear is the app for you. Clear provides you the ability to create and maintain reminders and lists for day-to-day tasks and schedules. It features very easy touch controls, including a sideways swipe function that removes items from your list as you complete them.

Clear is available for iPhone, iPad, and Mac desktop, and it can communicate between the three for easy organisation. The app allows for the creation of multiple lists, so that you do not have to keep track of every work-related task in the same list you use for your groceries or errands. And for small business owners who like to make their lists a little bit more personal, the app can be customised using themes and other elements to make it truly yours.

TripIt

Does your small business or e-commerce area of expertise require you to travel often? If so, TripIt may be able to help you make your life a little bit easier! TripIt allows you to input all of your upcoming travel plans, and then it reworks them into an understandable, easy to follow, and much less overwhelming single travel itinerary. Input the airport you are flying to or from, and the app will also provide you with up-to-the-minute information about the weather, any delays, and departure and arrival times. You can even use TripIt to give you directions to your airport!

With TripIt Pro, you can sync your plans with your mobile device’s calendar, or you can add plans manually. The Pro version of the app also provides you with flight alerts and seat upgrade availability, as well as information about alternate flights and your reward program points. With the free version of the app, you can manage your travel plans, share them with friends and family, and edit your plans manually.

ZenPayroll

Use this paperless payroll service to make sure that your employees and vendors get paid on time and correctly every time. Available for every operating system and mobile device, this app is sure to help when it comes time to figure pay checks!

ZenPayroll allows employers easy access to government documents for each employee, as well as pay stub archives for everyone. Best of all, it automatically figures income tax, so you don’t have to pay someone else to do that for you!

Basecamp

Basecamp gained popularity as a web site for project management, and it used that popularity to spur on the creation of its app. For any business that requires teams to work together to complete a project, this is the perfect app.

With Basecamp, you can start a project, invite the members of that project’s team to collaborate together through the app, create lists of milestones to accomplish, and more. Use the app to upload text documents and track the time spent by each team member on every project you start. Best of all, you can use it message everyone else who is working on a project with you, and receive messages from them, as well!